Take one of the bricks and hrow it at the wall with the different texture, opposue the Combine console. Three throws should be enough, the sound will be differnt when you ahve done it properly. If necessary run and throw the bricks.

leave the first room. Do not turn the corner right away. It is a trap. Throw something on the ground by the corner and it will collapse. Jump across. There are two wooden boxes. Push them aside. You’ll see a button on lower side of the wall. The button is the same texture as the wall. Use it and you’ll hear a sound. Wait a moment and part of the wall opposite it (with the Lambda symbol) will open.

Crouch and go through the hole. Turn rightand find two boxes on a wagon. Take the little one and enter the ventilation shaft. Stop before the corner and throw the box into the corner. This is a little difficult. Save the game. Get close to the corner as much as you can. When you are close enough to the area a vertical piston will go down and try to crush you. Probably it will too. Don’t get crushed, just after it starts to lower get back, but as soon as it crushes the box and starts to go up pass it. Do this quickly (PP Note: I never passed this point. I tried bricks, cans boxes everything. None of them worked!)

Get out of the vent, from end of the hall take the little bucket. There is a ventilation grate on the ceiling. Go under it, jump and throw the bucket. It will break into pieces. Push two boxes close and go through the hole. Break the ventilation door at the end with the brick. Go down. See the big box and barrel. Take the barrel away. Push the box and see the hole. Push the box away. Take the barrel, go to hole, at the end put the barrel to the right side. Jump onto the barrel and get out.

Turn right. There is another barrel. Take it away and see the button. Push the button. Elevator door will open. Enter the elevator. Push to the elevator button. You’ll go up. See the windows. Jump through them and watch as shutters block you in. Turn right, go straight. At the end look to your left you’ll see little broken window. There is a fast headcrab inside. Go inside push away the boxes on left, push the button behind them and get out.

Go to right, open the door you just unlocked with the button. There is your suit inside. Wear it. Get out, turn left, at the end of the hall there is trap. Jump over it and go out. (PP Note: there is a window with shutters that shows the Gman. I managed to walk through this window for some reason and go right up to the Gman.)

Turn left and take the crowbar. Break one of the boxes. The floor will collapse. Jump your way across. Take the gun. Open the door. Kill half zombies and zombies. Save your game. Difficult part ahead! Make your way to the hall with window and Combine shield at the end. Don’t walk straight away! Get close to the window. See the bloody part. It will make you a sandwich. (PP Note; In fact if you were watching earlier you would have seen a rebel get crushed there) Don’t let it. Sprint with your suit power. Turn left, don’t hurry. Yes, there is another one. Sprint again. Go to the end. There is a combine soldier! Kill it. Don’t rush in! This part pretty difficult. Save game. There is triple trouble here. Get close to moving wall. It will try to smash you, rapidly get back, when it starts to go back, sprint again and pass two moving walls together, but don’t stop! Turn right and kill two Combine soldiers which are waiting for you.

29 Comments

I am currently stuck and wanted to post the mod asap. It’s not a mod to run and gun. You will need to solve lots of particularly difficult puzzles. I am only 5 minutes in, so I can’t tell you what happens next. After I post this week’s poll question I’ll continue playing.

I just want to say NO SPOILERS in the comments.

EDIT:
So, I’ve played a bit more and it’s hard to recommend this mod. It could easily be called Very Stupid Mod or Very Frustrating Mod. Walls crush you and floors suddenly disappear. There’s little reality in this mod, but some people might enjoy it. I avoid using the AVOID IT image unless I feel a map or mod has no worth at all, in this case I believe some players may enjoy it.

I dislike dying and reloading and it’s unlikely I’ll continue this mod.

This is one big pile of steamy poo!
This mod isn’t hard, its is UNFAIR against the player. Only 1 puzzle was well executed (the first one) the rest involved, dying, loading trying again … find the button to open a door, ect … I got so frustrated by this abdomination of a mod that I cheated trough half of it and instantly deleted it afterwards.

Level design was good, lighting was between good and bad, but I couldn’t quite enjoy it. Very hard indeed, but there is nothing you can do to finish this mod without dying. Worth a try. It could have been quite a mod if mapper was a little more into it.

Yes it could have been good but is just childish.
If the author is aged 15 or less – well done but remember game players want to play not get squished all the time or fall down unseen holes that kill. Please do it again but without the “jokes’.
No game play to speak of but lots of the sort of pranks you would expect from a childrens game.
I got bored and no clipped until just before the end. 1 out of 5 for some inventive thinking.

Took some brain power but, figured out how to beat it in about an hour and a half. The hardest part is the beginning, after that, its just searching and timing to get to the end. If you don’t mind spending some time and getting partially frustrated, this is right for you!

It was too hard for me. I couldn’t work out how to get out of the first room, noclipped, and then couldn’t work out how to get out of the second room. I noclipped around, following the route and trying to crack each puzzle, but failed abjectly!

I threw the damn bricks several times but obviously not enough. One thing about that method of progressing is that it isn’t “canon”, as far as I understand the HL world – it’s an unbroken rule (until now) that you can’t break things by throwing stuff at them, only by launching objects with the gravity gun. I guess it’s OK to move the boundaries, but I kept thinking I was missing something because chucking the bricks surely shouldn’t work…

Yeah, I just thought that the puzzles could have been made “realer”. WHy did the piston come down, why did the floor disappear etc. With a little though I am sure it could have been made part of the story. Mqybe simply a really old building was falling apart etc.

OK replayed it and without noclip or cheats. I was glad to play it as the author intended and still stick to “avoid it” and the comments I made earlier but now add “irritating’.
That said, the author has been inventive – I’ve never killed a headcrab with a petrol can before! – and should be encouraged.
The most irritating was the crushing piston in the vent, why? Same question for the crushing walls I suppose.

He had some interesting gameplay mechanics in there such as the breaking of the walls with the cinderblock and killing the headcrab with a prop, but he failed with the traps. He made it too frustrating, and like other people said, a little childish. It would be cool if some other mappers made maps like this, except better and without the traps.

If I would describe this mod with one word, it would be: BAD
I don’t know how you can create such a can of bullshit and even expect anyone to play farther than the first room. People who play this are either really really bored or have already played all mods existing for this game.

I mean, I like hard mods and games, I also like it if sometimes they run into absurdity, but this piece is a impertinence. It obtains nearly zero fun (at least for me) and wasn’t worth the download. If I meet the creator of this in real life, I can’t promise that I won’t punch him in the face. If I wouldn’t know better I would have said this mod is made by a woman, because it contains no logic at all.

Hi all.
Mod I created only for the sake of interest, but I see to interest to me it was not possible. You like realism, and in mine to a mod it practically is not present :), here so to say fantastic decisions of puzzles.
I will think, perhaps I will create Very Hard Mod 2, but only I will approach it to realism and I will add more action.
The primary goal will be former – to be saved from this monstrous vault.
Sorry – I don’t know English 🙁

Hi Dimex.
Please understand that I respect you and the mod.
Please down load Research and Development and play it.
Then you will understand and know.
This will improve your good skills as a mapper. You have made a good start.

I could not break the first wall with the cinder blocks. Then I saw Hoyy’s comment about activating the console first. So I started a new game to try and the wall textures were missing now? Whatever. (Still couldn’t break the wall.)

So I gave myself the crowbar. I tried not to use it, but often did because I couldn’t get the cinder blocks to break anything they were supposed to break.

I couldn’t get through the crushing vent (did not try the larger box). I am not willing to reload and retry something for 10 minutes or more, just to do it without cheating, so I noclipped.

Once I got the suit and crowbar, I managed to finish without cheating or looking at the walkthrough. Then it was just “get squished by wall, reload, retry”.

This should not be called Very Hard Mod. It should be called Very Tedious Mod or Very Poorly Designed Mod. Just look at the third puzzle in the walkthrough.

The button is the same texture as the wall.

There is literally nothing to distinguish the button from the wall. If you did not use the walkthrough you would have to randomly press your use key at the bottom of a completely regular friggin’ wall. The whole mod is like this. It’s basically the HL2 equivalent of games like Syobon Action and I Wanna Be the Guy. As of writing this, Very Hard Mod is literally the worst mod I have ever played. I advise you to avoid it like a genetically modified black plague that also makes your head explode.

I can say that I mostly like challenge-like maps and mods, especially for HL. So, when I first saw this, I needed to try it out.

Well, it was decent. Not great, but decent.

This mod is split into 2 parts. The 1st part is the one with the puzzles and the challenges. Here, the mod reeks. Apart from 2-3 puzzles, the rest is just frustrating and annoying. Especially that part with the vent. That was just messed up. Again, some were fine, but most were just cheap and rage-inducing. The 2nd part is the one with the combat. Here, there aren’t any new puzzles. Just combat. This part is fine, however it’s very repetitive and gets boring quickly.

Overall, this mod is fine, however most people won’t enjoy it, especially with its cheapness issues and it’s repetitive nature.